Intersection Read online

  The agent’s expression prompted a motherly shake of the teacher’s head followed by a howl of laughter that seemed to light Cassidy from within. The pepper fell limp in the agent’s mouth as she became completely beguiled by the face before her. Cassidy’s laugh softened to a snicker as she reached the agent and pulled the pepper from her lips replacing it with a kiss. “I am glad you are home,” the smaller woman softly murmured, straining to reach the taller agent’s ear. Alex’s response took both of them by surprise. She pulled Cassidy closer to her and kissed her passionately. As the kiss broke the blonde woman in her arms found it difficult to speak or even open her eyes.

  “I think,” Alex kissed the woman’s neck, “I might be onto something.” Cassidy’s breath escaped in a quiver and Alex kissed her again gently. “I’ll have to undress the facts later,” she whispered in the woman’s ear.

  “Alex…”

  Alex gloated devilishly as Cassidy’s eyes opened to meet hers. There was something about this moment that made Alex feel as though she had fallen in love withCassidy all over again. Green eyes danced with blue as they met silently. It was such a simple moment and yet it held within it everything that had meaning for Alex. She pulled Cassidy close, her heart bursting. The words fell from her lips, “Tu es l’amour de ma vie. (You are the love of my life).”

  Without missing a beat the teacher responded, “Je veux être avec toi pour toujours. (I want to be with you forever).”

  Alex took the face before her in her hands. “You will be,” she promised with a tender kiss.

  Cassidy was drifting off on the couch when Dylan jumped in between his mother and the agent. Three hours of Batman had worn out Dylan’s mom and it was only seven o’clock. Dylan, however, was wide awake but growing tired of the caped crusader a bit himself. “Alex?” He bounced partially into her lap. The agent raised a brow at him. “How come you have a gun?” Cassidy listened closely.

  Alex let out a quick but strong sigh. She had tried the last few days to keep the sidearm concealed around Dylan. Alex hated guns. She hated everything about them. She also understood their necessity in her work and she wanted to be certain that Dylan knew that her pistol was neither a toy nor was it something she enjoyed carrying. “Well, Dylan,” she said pulling him onto her knee. “You know, what I do when I go to work is like a policeman in a lot of ways. Sometimes there are people; people who want to hurt other people….And it’s my job to keep people safe. That’s why I have the gun.”

  He considered her statement. “Can I have a gun?” Cassidy watched the agent’s jaw line stiffen. “Why would you want a gun, Dylan?”

  “I can be like you.”

  Alex nodded. “Dylan…I wish I didn’t have a gun.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my job is to help people, and guns…guns can hurt people. It’s just something I have to do and it took me a long time, Dylan, to learn how to use it without hurting anyone.”

  “Did you shoot anyone?” He asked curiously.

  Alex swallowed hard. “Yes, Dylan. I have.”

  “Did they die?”

  Cassidy sat up ready to intervene and Alex shook her head. “Dylan, one time…quite a long time ago, there was a man who did some very bad things. He hurt a lot of people. He even tried to hurt me. I had to stop him.” Alex smiled at him gently. “And that was a day I wish never happened, for him or for me. You listen to me, if you want to be a good guy, you be like your mom.” He looked at her quizzically. “Real heroes don’t carry guns, Dylan. They don’t even wear capes, or drive fast cars or even catch bad guys.”

  “But you’re a hero,” he said proudly.

  Alex laughed uncomfortably. “Well, your mom’s my hero.”

  “She is?”

  Cassidy felt her eyes begin to water as she watched and listened to her lover address her son compassionately and cautiously. “Yes, she really is and do you know why?” He shook his head. “Because she doesn’t need a gun to protect people. She just loves them and teaches them how to be better people and people like your mom; they are the people that someday will make it so nobody has to have a gun or a cape.” She whispered in his ear, “but maybe we’ll keep the cool cars.” Dylan smiled and nodded. He looked at his mother and hugged her hard.

  “What was that for?” Cassidy beamed.

  Dylan shrugged. “I’m glad you’re my mom.” He hopped down. “Wanna’ watch Cars?” He called heading for his stack of movies.

  “Sure,” Alex called back.

  Cassidy turned and put her head in the agent’s lap. Alex played gently with her hair, watching the woman’s eyes slowly close in contentment. “I love you, Agent Toles,” Cassidy said quite plainly as she drifted off. Alex inhaled and leaned back comfortably as Dylan crawled back onto the couch beside his mother, Cassidy resting on the agent and the boy resting against her.

  “Alex?” He said in a whisper.

  “What is it Speed Racer?”

  “You’re still my hero too.”

  “Right back at ya’ little man.”

  Cassidy felt the bed start to move and she turned to see Alex jerking slightly in a dream. “Down…..down….Cap...” Alex seemed to groan some more unintelligible words before she spoke clearly again. “Where is he? Cap….not right…no…it’s…..CAP!”

  Cassidy gently took hold of the agent’s shoulder shaking her lightly, “Alex…wake up….Alex.”

  “CAP! ….NO…..” The agent’s knees were suddenly drawn into her chest.

  “Alex, please wake up…it’s a dream.”

  “Ma hatha! Arbaʿaẗu ʾarkān!” Alex sat straight up; her eyes darting and her body shaking violently.

  “Alex,” Cassidy whispered as she put her arm slowly around the agent who was hyperventilating. “Alex, it’s okay.” Suddenly realizing where she was the agent helplessly collapsed into Cassidy’s arms. “Shhh…it’s okay,” Cassidy whispered as Alex sobbed uncontrollably. “It’s okay. Oh Alex….I’m sorry.” Alex had woken this way many times over the years. The nightmares were far less frequent now and she was never certain what brought them on. She had always been alone; never with the comfort of anyone beside her. Feeling Cassidy’s arms surround her seemed to break the dam that she had built and her emotions poured through now like a raging river. She tried to speak but her words were lost in her tears. “Don’t,” Cassidy said to quell any speech. “Just let me hold you. Slow down….I’m here….I’m here, Alex.”

  It took almost twenty minutes for Alex to regain any composure and even as her tears began to subside; she felt her grip on Cassidy remain firm. It was foreign to the agent. She was used to being the protector. What she had said to Dylan was true. Cassidy was her hero and with the teacher, Alex was as vulnerable as she had ever been. She had never trusted anyone so completely. “Cass?” The agent whispered.

  “What, love?” Cassidy asked, continuing to softly rock the strong woman in her arms.

  “I need you,” Alex felt her tears surge again.

  “I’m right here.”

  “I’m sorry…I haven’t had that dream…”

  “Shhh,” Cassidy kissed the woman’s head.

  “I was there, you know? It feels like I’m there…..Taylor fell… and…”

  Cassidy pulled Alex to her. “Alex.”

  “I should have seen it.” Cassidy stroked her long dark hair and wiped the tears from Alex’s cheeks. “How could I not see it…the trap…it was all…”

  “Alex, stop this. Whatever happened there, I know it wasn’t your fault. Stop.”

  “No. It was. I should have known it was a trap….four corners…I missed it.” Alex sighed and looked up to Cassidy as her body began to relax more. “Cass?” The teacher looked at her lover with tears in her own eyes. “I can’t lose you.”

  “You’re not going to lose me. Je veux être avec toi pour toujours, remember?” Alex forced a smile. No one had ever seen the agent like this. She was grateful for Cassidy’s arms and terrified realizing how much she needed them. Cassidy
smiled and kissed her lover, “Je t’aime. (I love you).”

  “French,” Alex said.

  “I too have some talents, my love,” Cassidy said as she kissed the agent softly.

  “Je t’aime,” Alex whispered.

  “Forever,” Cassidy answered. “Sleep, love,” she said holding the agent lovingly. “Je t’adore. (I adore you).”

  allon entered the room to find Congressman Christopher O’Brien far more alert and mobile than he expected. The ability to eat and to sit for long periods of time was helping to increase the congressman’s speech and concentration. “I see you are feeling better,” the agent greeted the man.

  “Agent Fallon, what brings you here?”

  Fallon pulled a chair alongside the hospital bed. “Well, Congressman, I had hoped you could shed some light on Mr. Fisher.”

  “Carl Fisher was a photographer on my campaign.”

  “Yes, I know, and Mrs. O’Brien asked you to dismiss him,” Fallon said.

  “And I did.”

  “For what reason?”

  “I assume you know that, Mr. Fallon. Why don’t you get to your point?” The congressman said abruptly.

  Fallon nodded. “Fine. What made you employ a CIA agent as a photographer?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Fallon. Mr. Fisher was recommended to me by a fraternity brother, Jon Krause.”

  “I see. So, when Mrs. O’Brien first told you she had concerns about Mr. Fisher…you refused to let him go.”

  “Look, Agent…not that it is any of your business…”

  “Congressman, anything that might endanger Mrs. O’Brien, you or your son IS my business,” Brian Fallon asserted.

  The congressman narrowed his gaze. “Not that it is your business, but Mrs. O’Brien was quite emotional then.”

  “How so?” Fallon asked.

  The congressman gave the agent a look of disgust, “we were trying to conceive and it was not going well. She was very distraught.”

  “So you thought her distress over this inability to get pregnant made her hysterical?”

  “Not hysterical, emotional,” Congressman O’Brien answered.

  “But you finally let him go?”

  “Yes. I did. Though I never thought he was a threat.”

  “Well, we believe he IS a threat,” the agent offered.

  “You also believe he is CIA,” the congressman rolled his eyes.

  Agent Fallon nodded. He had spent many years as a detective interrogating suspects and he knew how to play nearly every game a suspect or witness wanted to engage in. Congressman O’Brien knew something. What it was, Fallon was not certain. Whatever Christopher O’Brien was hiding, he was willing to risk Cassidy’s safety to keep it a secret. “Congressman,” Agent Fallon rose to his feet and turned his back to the man in the bed, “I don’t, as you put it, believe that Carl Fisher was a CIA agent; I KNOW that he was…when he worked on your campaign.”

  “Why would the CIA be interested in my campaign, Agent?”

  “If I knew that Sir, I would not be here asking you.”

  “Perhaps you should ask Cassie,” the congressman shot back.

  “Why would Mrs. O’Brien have information about that?”

  The congressman smirked as his girlfriend entered the room. “Jon Krause. He and Cassie were good friends when we were together.”

  “Your fraternity brother?”

  “That’s right. Cassidy studied in France for six months her senior year. Jon was working there at the time. They became close. That’s how Fisher got the job.” The congressman turned to his girlfriend. “Is that all, agent?’

  Agent Fallon offered a fake smile. “For now.”

  ***

  Alex put her mug in the sink and kissed Cassidy on the head. “Gotta’ go,” she said. “Cass?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks.”

  “For what? The teacher inquired.

  “For everything,” Alex smiled at her lover receiving a knowing smile in return. “See ya’ Speed Racer!” She called into the living room.

  “BYE ALEX!” He yelled.

  Alex opened the front door and stopped. “What the hell?” The agent slowly closed the door and headed back in the house to the kitchen, her hand gently resting on her sidearm.

  “Forget something?” Cassidy called lightheartedly before looking up from her coffee to see Alex’s expression.

  “Cass, go into the study with Dylan and lock the door until I come for you. Do you understand?”

  “Alex, what’s…”

  “Cassidy…just do it. Please.” Cassidy’s felt her heart drop and her stomach rise as she nodded and headed to retrieve her son.

  “Mom!”

  “Dylan,” Cassidy cautioned.

  Alex walked to the doorway and looked directly at the boy. “Dylan, do as your mother says.” The boy saw the intensity in his hero’s eyes and obeyed. Cassidy looked at Alex in fear as she moved down the short hallway. “Cass, just go…I’ll be back.” The agent withdrew her side arm and began to sweep through the house. It was empty. She headed back to the door and opened it slowly. She pulled the phone from her pocket. “Fallon?”

  “Toles? What’s wrong?”

  “Fallon, he was here.”

  Brian Fallon felt his heart begin to pound. “Fisher? How do you know?”

  “There’s a letter on the door. It’s him, it’s definitely him. I need you to call that contact of yours at the P.D.”

  “Toles…I’ll get Tate…”

  Alex cut her partner off, “no….no Tate.”

  “Why?” Fallon asked.

  “NO TATE,” Alex answered forcefully, “just….Fallon…. shit…..”

  “What? What is it?” Agent Toles remained silent. “Alex….. what the hell is going on?”

  “Well Cassidy finally…we will see…you and I…she’ll be gone…. Will be soon…we will dance…you will die,” Alex read the words aloud.

  “Is that the letter?”

  “Yeah.” Alex felt sick. “I need to get this bagged and I need to get to Cassidy.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s here.”

  “Look Toles, maybe this isn’t the time but….”

  Alex was running low on patience. “What is it, Fallon?”

  “Well, O’Brien…he told me he hired Fisher on a recommendation from some fraternity brother…said the guy was friends with Cassidy when she lived in France. Jon Krause.”

  Alex went numb. “What was his name?”

  “Krause. Why? Do you know him?”

  “Not exactly. He knows Cassidy?” Alex pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “According to O’Brien.”

  “Shit. How does he? Never mind. Fallon, call that detective….and check on Brackett, see what case she’s working.”

  Fallon was confused. “Why? What does Brackett’s…”

  “Just do it, Fallon. I’ll call you later.” Alex took a deep breath. She made her way to the trunk of her car and retrieved her case. Slowly, she peeled the letter from the door, placed it in a bag and deposited it in her case. She took a deep breath, closed the door and headed for Cassidy and Dylan. “It’s me.”

  Cassidy opened the door and looked at the agent. “Alex?” There was a distance in the agent’s eyes that scared Cassidy more than what had just happened. “Alex…what…”

  “Call your mother,” Alex said. “See if she can come get Dylan.”

  “Why?”

  Alex looked at her lover with a vacancy in her stare. “We need to talk. I’ll be back in a few a minutes. Please call her.” Alex walked away through the front door and put her face in her hands. Why would Cassidy be involved with Jon Krause? What hadn’t Cassidy O’Brien told her? She sat on the stoop and tried to calm her anger and her doubt as a million questions collided with endless emotions. She walked to the car and sat in the passenger’s seat, opening the glove box and retrieving the small black flip phone she kept there. Why would Cassidy lie
to her about anything? What was going on?

  “Toles?” The voice came over the phone.

  “Taylor, is Brady coming here?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Can you process something for me, here in New York if I give it to him?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you put someone outside this afternoon?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah. Toles…what the hell is going on?”

  “What do you know about Jonathan Krause?” Alex asked her friend.

  The phone was quiet for a few beats. “Smart, CIA… maybe more, connected. Why?”

  “He knows Cassidy.”

  “How?” Taylor asked.

  “I don’t know, something about France,” Alex explained.

  “She told you that?” He asked.

  “No. She didn’t.”

  “Toles…I’m sure it’s just…”

  “There are no coincidences, Taylor. Wherever four corners meet…they meet for a reason.”

  “Toles….”

  “I gotta’ go,” Alex said dryly.

  Rose scooted Dylan out the front door and Cassidy made her way to the living room. She sat down on the large sofa with her hands in her lap and looked at Alex. The agent seemed almost cold and Cassidy felt as if her heart were breaking in two. “Alex, please…. Tell me what is going on.”

  “Jon Krause.” Alex said. Cassidy looked at her as if to ask why that name was important. The agent turned her back momentarily before facing the teacher again. “You know him.”

  “Of course I know him,” Cassidy said as a pure matter of fact.

  “How?” Alex asked pointedly.

  “What does Jon Krause have to do…”

  Alex interrupted her lover. “How, Cassidy?”

  “He’s one of Chris’s fraternity brothers.”

  “And?” Alex asked.

  “And what?”

  “Why were you in France with him?’

  “What?” Cassidy asked, beginning to move from worried to angry.

  “Well?” Alex pressed.

  “I wasn’t in France with him.”